Sunday, March 27, 2011

After I returned from my trip to Uganda, I made a video with my favorite pictures from our "journey". Well, much progress has been made at the orphanage that Project Hope Worldwide is building since December, so I just updated my video with a few of the latest pics sent to us from Calo Me Lare. Enjoy!

Saturday, March 26, 2011

I recently got together with some of my creative friends for another Craft Night. We made these super cute hobo bags! Unfortunately, I am not a sewer, so my only contribution was cutting and ironing the fabric. I'm thinkin' I could whip one out pretty quick with a hot glue gun but I'm pretty sure it wouldn't hold up as well as sewing it ;-)

Directions:
Combine all ingredients. Set 1/2 the pecans aside. You really have to use your hands to get this mixed well. When well combined, form into ball. Roll in remaining pecans. Serve with crackers or raw veggies.
If it's a larger crowd, this doubles easily. Keeps well in fridge up to a week, so it's great for making ahead. Enjoy!

Wednesday, March 16, 2011

March 11, 2011 marks a horrible day in Japan's history. While we are all still grieving over this horrific tragedy, it does seem to bring out the good in many people. People from all over the globe are donating their time and monies in recovery and clean up efforts in Japan. And most of all, it is bringing people closer to God in prayer and people are searching out ways they can help those in need. While I do not take this day lightly, I do think many lessons can come from it. Many prayers are going out to the victims of the Japan Tsunami and Earthquake.

The moms in our homeschool co-op got together recently for a Mom's Night Out. We had a Crock Pot theme and everyone brought something that they liked to make in their crock pot along with their recipes. We put everyone's recipes together in a book to take home. All the food was soooo yummy!

Here's a few of the recipes from our fun night...

Crock Pot Chili

Submitted by Kati

Ingredients:

3 cans of kidney beans

3 cans of chili beans

2 large cans of tomato paste

2 lbs of hamburger or ground turkey

1/2 onion/diced (optional) could substitute with powder

Chili powder to taste (I use about 3 TSP)

Pepper to taste

2 cups of diced tomatoes

Brown hamburger meat, drain. Dump all ingredients into crockpot, cook on low all day. No need to drain beans or add water to recipe; crockpot will create moisture.

Recipe Tips:

I recommend fresh garden tomatoes, simply because if you have a garden, you have a lot of tomatoes ; ) You can dice and freeze your garden tomatoes into 1 cup measurements and store in ziplock bags. No need to defrost, just dump into the crockpot frozen.

If your chili is too runny you can always mix in another can of tomato paste right before serving or mix a rue (small amount of flour and water mixed) to thicken it up.

Meat is optional, you could have beans only. If using meat, I rinse the hamburger or ground turkey with water in a strainer before adding.

I try to use organic Chili powder. Available at most bulk herb stores, and cheaper too!

*Seems like a lot of pepper, but it has a wonderful flavor when everything mixes together. If you’re apprehensive, do less pepper. You can always add more.

**We like to cook our bacon in the oven (400 degrees, convection). Way less messy. And it’s crispy every time. Time varies, so you just have to watch it. I think it’s usually around 30 minutes. Allow to cool and then crumple (I totally wear disposable gloves for this part – surprise, surprise).

Directions:

Crock pot chicken and bottle of marinade on low for 6 hours. Pull marinated chicken out of the juices, allow to cool a little bit, and shred (I pull it apart). Set this aside. About a half-hour before serving, boil the pasta. In a small saucepan, melt butter, add garlic, whipping cream, pepper, parmesan cheese, and crumpled bacon. Whisk together on low heat for 3-4 minutes. In a large bowl, pour over cooked, drained pasta, add chicken and stir through. Sprinkle a little bit more shredded parmesan cheese on top.

I changed the recipe from 1 tbsp of pepper to 1/2 tbsp so you can change it back if you like a lot of pepper!

Thursday, March 3, 2011

Our homeschool Co-Op took a field trip to the Tulsa International Airport today. We had so much fun seeing everything that goes on "behind the scenes"! We got to see the airport's fire station, the location of the weather station and where they make school busses, where our checked luggage goes, how they do security checks, and we got to go into an airplane simulator. This was by far one of our favorite field trips. So much fun - thank you, Joey, for planning it for us!

Thanks for Stopping By!

This is a blog I kept up of our family from about 2008-2013. I always say "I don't scrapbook. I blog." It's fun to look back the fun memories we made. It's true when they say, "Don't blink because your kids grow up that fast!"

(I now keep a blog of our family on a page called, "Keep Calm and Love Big" although I don't write as much as I'd like to - just not enough time in the day! We also have an adoption blog where we post updates called "Arms Wide Open".)